What Does Matthew 9:9 Mean?
And as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, Follow me. And he rose and followed him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.THE KEY
The call reaches Matthew while he is still seated, so being seen comes before changing direction.
THE MEANING
You are met where you are, before you have moved or made yourself more ready. The invitation comes first; rising and following are the answer that gives the moment its new direction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must get yourself out of your old position before you can be seen: Matthew is seen and called while he is still sitting at the booth.
THE ROOT
ἠκολούθησεν
ēkolouthēsen
GROWS FROM
ἀκολουθ-
Follow, accompany.
The same Greek verb first arrives as an invitation and then returns as Matthew’s action: the call and his response share one root. The verse’s hinge is the movement from being told to follow into following.
ALSO GROWS
akolouthos: Follower, companion, or attendant.
ἀκόλουθος
The follower noun shows that following places someone in relation to another’s movement.
akolouthia: Following or sequence.
ἀκολουθία
This related word for sequence echoes how Matthew’s response comes after the call.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver, bring out; movement from narrowness toward spaciousness.
The name spoken in English as Jesus carries the Hebrew name Yeshua, from ישע: to deliver, to bring out. Deliverance is present as the one who sees Matthew where he sits and calls him into motion; the movement begins with being seen.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
The related noun names the movement embodied in the scene: Matthew is called out of the place where he is sitting.
moshia: Deliverer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This name for a deliverer belongs to the same root as Yeshua, the one who initiates Matthew’s new direction.
ἀναστὰς
anastas
GROWS FROM
στα-
Stand, stand upright.
“arose” in this verse is anastas. Matthew moves from sitting to standing before the verse says he follows. The same στα- family appears in the Greek word for rising or resurrection, making the change of posture visible at the moment his direction changes.
ALSO GROWS
stasis: Standing or position.
στάσις
The word keeps the root’s sense of taking a standing position, the opposite posture from Matthew’s sitting.
anastasis: Rising or resurrection.
ἀνάστασις
The rising word shares στα- and magnifies the movement contained in Matthew’s simple act of getting up.
THE PATTERN
A summons changes direction when the person who receives it answers with movement.
So Abram went, as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he went out of Haran.And he turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them, and boiled their flesh with the tools of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they ate. Then he rose, and walked after Elijah, and attended him.And straightway they let go of the nets, and followed him.THE THREAD
My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.The Greek word translated “follow” here comes from the same ἀκολουθ- root as Matthew’s response. In both verses, following grows from hearing or receiving a voice into movement with the one who speaks.
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